My second painting in the series "UNDERWORLD" , these are the 'ZOOOIDS' or 'ZOOIDS', (** see definitions below) Self-replicating organisms through means other than sex.

My creatures are based on living things called "Siphonophora". The illustrations I discovered are from the bio-drawings of Ernst Haeckel, (from the book; "ART FORMS IN NATURE") (Ernst Haeckel: [link]) Sometimes I meander through this lovely book to get jolts of inspiration. (and also to enjoy, always that!)

I'm also currently working on #3 in the 'Underworld' series which I plan to title "FAUNA vs FLORA", or vise-versa.

Definitions of "ZOOIDS"

1. any organic body or cell capable of spontaneous movement and of an existence more or less apart from or independent of the parent organism.2. any animal organism or individual capable of separate existence, and produced by fission, gemmation, or some method other than direct sexual reproduction.3. any one of the recognizably distinct individuals or elements of a compound or colonial animallike organism, whether or not detached or detachable.

zo·oid (zō'oid' ￼ n. 1. An organic cell or organized body that has independent movement within a living organism, especially a motile gamete such as a spermatozoon. 2. An independent animallike organism produced asexually, as by budding or fission. 1. One of the distinct individuals forming a colonial animal such as a bryozoan or hydrozoan.

You are hands down the most incredible artist I've ever seen. I've loved your work for I think about 13 years or so, maybe more, after I randomly stumbled upon the Vomitus Maximus museum somehow (don't remember), and you just get better & better, which I never thought was even possible, since you were already so amazing. To say I love your art would be an understatement, and I'm not trying to flatter you or any of that other bullshit, I honestly & truly feel this way. Nothing in the world comes close to your artwork. I would literally fill my place with it if I could afford to. Keep up the amazing work.

I'm in total agreement with ~terachilex and yet I'm always amazed that you work in such small formats. I'm also amazed that your work so closely resembles Haeckel's.

Oh, and thanks for the link - he was an extremely interesting individual who was a true intellectual and apparently knew a lot about everything. He was also the person who coined the term First World War and was an accomplished Zoologist.

Your work always artistically inspires and intellectually informs the viewer. Thanks for being a near anomaly on dA - a thinking artist!

They say that in a few hundred thousand years, the Y chromosome will be completely gone and males will be nonexistent. It's already happened to a species of lizard; they reproduce by giving birth to genetic clones of themselves.